At Hobart, Captain's Work Ethic is an Echo to the Past

It didn’t seem like their paths would ever cross. Separated by state lines and 30 years, it looked like they were destined to be two college lacrosse players who never found each other. It would not have been a terrible thing, but something would have always been missing. Luckily, kindred spirits always find a way to each other.

Growing up in Rumson, N.J., Ryan Korn started playing football and lacrosse as a young kid. Reid Jackson, Ryan’s high school lacrosse coach and member of the 1998 gold medal-winning U.S. national lacrosse team, was helping out with youth lacrosse programs when he spotted Ryan. “Like a lot of young players, Ryan was wide-eyed and willing to learn. [He was] very athletic [and] really just one of those kids on the field that could run a little faster, run a little longer…so he definitely stood out.”

In high school, Ryan played for Jackson’s team at Rumson Fair Haven High and for Tri-State Lacrosse, an elite travel lacrosse program founded by New Jersey Hall of Fame lacrosse coach Bob Turco. “What set [Ryan] apart from other players,” Turco explains, “was that he was very focused, worked very hard, understood positioning, very mentally tough, very strong and very strong-willed.” By his junior year in high school, Ryan’s coaches realized he had what it took to be a Division 1 lacrosse player.

At Plainview-JFK High in Long Island, N.Y., in the 1970s, Jon Feinstein ruled the football and lacrosse fields. Feinstein was naturally strong and the toughest player on the field. Feinstein was named captain alongside Ryan’s father, Rick. Rick describes Jon as “a natural born leader…someone you would go to about all of your issues. He was honest and sincere in everything.” Feinstein continued his lacrosse career at Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., from 1976-1980 winning three national championships and serving as captain of the 1980 team.

As Ryan entered the college recruitment process, Coach Jackson and coach Turco wrote letters of recommendation to interested colleges. For coach Jackson, this was an easy process. “I stressed that he’s coachable, he wants to work at it and he’s going to give you everything he has…Anybody that selects him, no matter what he does for you, you won’t be disappointed.” Turco stressed Ryan’s athleticism and his intangibles. Turco wrote that “[Ryan’s] going to be an excellent locker room guy. He’ll be supportive of what your goals are as a team over his personal goals [because] that’s the way it is with him.” Ryan’s high school teammates recognized these qualities as well and named him captain his senior year. Jackson said, “Ryan did a very good job of balancing out the strong personalities on the team and was much more of a lead by example leader.” In the fall of his senior year, Ryan committed to Providence and was looking forward to continuing his lacrosse career at the Division 1 level.

Fred Mosher entered Hobart on the same day as Jon Feinstein. Mosher was also a member of the lacrosse team and competing against Jon at the same position. “When I first met Jon,” Mosher recalls, “I thought, ‘this guy is kind of big so he’ll be slow and I’ll just run past him.’ But I was wrong. He was brutal on the field. Not the fastest on the field but the toughest. It was painful to practice against him.” Although it became apparent to Mosher that Jon was a better player than he was, he liked him immediately. Mosher describes Jon as a nice, personable guy with a quiet confidence and they quickly became close friends.

When Ryan entered Providence College, he signed up for science classes because of his interest in medicine. He quickly found out, however, that labs often interfered with lacrosse practice. He talked with his coach about this issue and did not receive the feedback he was hoping for. “It would have been difficult at Providence to be a pre-med major and still make it to practice on time and that was something that the coach made clear to me,” Ryan explained. “It didn’t take me long to realize that [being a pre-med major] was what I wanted to do and what was going to make me happy.” Ryan felt his only choice would be to try to transfer to a school that would allow him to pursue his pre-med major and still play D1 lacrosse. Not an easy road to go down considering coaches know how demanding it is on a student-athlete both mentally and physically.

“I knew what I had to do [so] it was just about doing well in school and lacrosse [at Providence in order to] open up options at other schools…I just did my best to hang in there and get through it.” Ryan’s hard work paid off when he made the Dean’s list and played in every game his freshman year at Providence. Ryan’s first college lacrosse game was at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse against the defending national champions. He and his teammates watched the Orangemen receive their national championship rings before the game. “That was quite the welcome into college lacrosse,” Ryan recalls, “You get to measure yourself in that situation when you’re up against the best. It can only get better from there.” Despite being a freshman, Ryan settled right into the game, making defensive stops and gaining confidence. “We had a rough outing but on a personal level it felt good for where I was at and where I was going.”

Where Ryan exactly was going was still up in the air. He took the fall semester off to figure everything out but, unlike many 19 year-olds with all the free time in the world, he didn’t sit around watching TV. Ryan joined coach Turco as a coach at the Future Leaders Institute in Harlem, New York. “Ryan always cared about other people more than himself,” says Coach Turco, “He was wonderful working with the little kids and you could tell he cares about people in everything he does.” Working with the young kids came naturally to Ryan, which was exemplified in Ryan getting low when he talked with the kids. “We don’t often put ourselves in the position of a small child looking at you,” Coach Turco explains, “but [Ryan] would get low to try to keep his eyes lower than the child’s eyes [and] you don’t always see that [type of understanding ]in young men. I never told him to do that, he just naturally did it.” The kids connected with him and Ryan no doubt left a strong impression on them.

In 1980, Mosher and Feinstein were named captains at Hobart, along with Roy McAdam but Mosher says that Feinstein was the natural leader that everyone gravitated towards. “The best way to describe Jon,” Mosher says, “is that he was the one peer we all really looked up to. He was mature beyond his years, he acted older, he saw bigger things around him than we did. [When you’re] 18-22 year’s old, your outlook is very small [and] right around yourself but Jon wasn’t like that and we all knew it.” Jon was the first person teammates and friends would turn to for problems on and off the field. And when the coaches had to talk to the captains, they would talk with Jon.

During Ryan’s search for a new school, it became clear that not many schools were willing to make adjustments in order for him to pursue his dream. But then Ryan met TW Johnson, the coach at Hobart College. “I loved Hobart right away,” Ryan recalls, “because just in speaking with Coach Johnson, he was very open and willing to let me go [the pre-med] route. He was OK with the fact that every once in a while I’d be late to practice or miss practice. He had a better idea of helping us out in what we want to do.” As Ryan knows from experience, many other Division 1 schools are not willing to make these concessions but to coach Johnson it is an easy decision to make. “My own belief is if someone wants to pursue a particular major that is going to lead to a career of their interest I think my job as a coach is to support that…We’ve never denied anyone the opportunity to pursue a particular major.”

Ryan’s first visit to Hobart made a strong impression on him for another reason. Coach Johnson took Ryan to Hobart’s Hall of Captains and as they were walking through the years, Ryan found himself face-to-face with Jon Feinstein. After growing up hearing his dad tell numerous stories about Jon, here was Ryan, truly seeing him for the first time. Ryan was off to Hobart, and his path was slowly starting to collide with Jon’s.

For Ryan, it means losing a lot of sleep. “You have to find time where there isn’t time [and] you kind of become that odd student at school. If you ask any of my teammates, I’m up late a lot, I’m in the library a lot…I’ve developed a different sleeping pattern than everyone else but it’s not as bad as it sounds, it’s just an adjustment that you make and now it’s just my lifestyle.” Ryan’s lack of sleep paid off in the classroom, as he was inducted into Hobart’s Chimera Society, the junior class honor society, and named to the 2011 ECAC All-Academic Team.

Ryan red-shirted his first year at Hobart, but that didn’t stop him from making an impression on his new team and coach. “I admire him a lot because he didn’t play in a game his first season but he continued to practice hard, not complain about it, just put his nose to the grindstone and chipped away at it,” says Coach Johnson. The first thing anyone is going to notice about Ryan on the field is his speed. Coach Johnson describes Ryan on the field as a very fast, physical player with good strength who does a good job defending the ball and also in the clearing game. Ryan’s hard work has paid off, as he became a starter this year. “He just worked hard and earned his way into a role with our team and done very well with it. Everything he’s gotten he’s earned and the foundation of all of that is his work ethic,” says Coach Johnson.

Ryan’s work ethic was not lost on his teammates, who voted him a captain for the 2012 season. Coach Johnson saw that “it was pretty clear in the voting that people respect his character, they respect his work ethic [and] they respect the ability he’s showed to be a true student-athlete…There’s no doubt he’s got the respect of his teammates in the locker room and of the coaching staff.” For Coach Johnson, it’s a true testament to Ryan’s character and work ethic that “he does everything he does, academically and athletically, very well and he [still has] time to help his teammates.” Ryan explains his leadership style as lead-by-example. He’s vocal when he has to be, but more comfortable putting his head down and working hard one hundred percent of the time.

Ryan spent time last year working at Geneva General Hospital. His experience there opened his eyes to the Geneva community and the reality that a lot of residents don’t have healthcare. This didn’t sit well with Ryan so he decided to put a concert together to raise money for healthcare for youth in Geneva. Who better to name the concert for, than Jon Feinstein? Mosher spent a lot of time with Ryan as they organized the concert.

“Ryan is the same type of person as Jon…wise beyond his years,” Mosher explains.

“That concert was about helping other people which is very impressive for someone his age.” Mosher has no doubt that if Jon’s life wasn’t cut short by non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 28 years old, Jon’s “life would have been built around helping other people. He would have had a tremendous impact on more lives than he already [did].” After spending so much time with Ryan, Mosher sees that “Ryan is the same way. Ryan is going to have a tremendously positive impact on large numbers of people.”

For Ryan, Jon is no longer a name from his dad’s stories but someone he wants to emulate. As Ryan says, “it seems like Jon was the type of guy who was always doing the right thing and to have people who want to rally around him to this day…who wouldn’t want that [for themselves]?” Although the path was long and anything but straight, Jon and Ryan are now forever linked together not only by those who know them both, but also by Hobart’s Hall of Captains. Ryan’s picture will soon hang just a few feet down from Jon’s, continuing a legacy of hard work, selflessness and honor.

Kira Weinstein is a writer with www.backsportspage.com. Her recent interviews include Dwight Howard and Randy Foye of the NBA and former NFL player Mark McMillian. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in Sports Management. She can be contacted at kira.weinstein@gmail.com.